Why Customers Will Abuse Your Generous Guarantee (And Why You Should Offer One Anyway)

Yesterday I got an email from a customer that really chapped my hide.

This moron bought a digital product from one of my websites, scanned through it, and decided it wasn’t worth the $199 he paid for it.

(He’s wrong—there are single SENTENCES in this product that are easily worth 10X that much when you apply them.)

So in the email he whined about not getting enough value.

Fair enough—whatever.

Here’s what really disgusted me though:

The link he forwarded was for a different product, which he’d bought a few weeks back and ALSO refunded.

That’s right, this turkey had bought a product, decided he didn’t like it, demanded a refund… Then turned around and bought ANOTHER product he ultimately didn’t want.

Not only that, but I can track the downloads of the files, and it looks like he probably “shared” them with a few of his friends.

What a lowlife.

Well, he won’t be doing this again—I blacklisted him in my shopping cart software.

Really though, I can’t complain. I go out of my way to make it easy for people to do this by the way I structure my guarantees.

Every time I write a sales page, I devote a good chunk of time to devising the most lavish, generous, even outrageous guarantee I can come up with.

Where most people offer a 14-day money back guarantee, I give customers a full year to get their money back.

Where other businesses are timid about promising results, I vow to work with my customers personally to make SURE they get their money’s worth.

I’ll even tell customers NOT to make up their mind yet—to just test drive the product, and if they don’t like it, they can turn right around and get every penny back.

Most people are afraid that a gutsy guarantee will leave them sleeping under a bridge after hordes of pitchfork-clutching customers show up and demand refunds.

That NEVER happens.

Instead most customers are impressed with the way you stand behind your product. You’re taking the risk out of the decision for them, and your sales will jump as you turn more fence-sitters into buyers.

And yes, you’ll get the occasional lowlife who abuses your generosity.

No problem—just grit your teeth and hand ’em their pennies back.

Then console yourself by counting the stacks of extra Benjamins you’re making thanks to that over-the-top guarantee.